Windstorms, such as tropical storms, tornados, storm bursts and hurricanes may place severe stress on buildings which, if left unchecked, can lead to property damage and loss of life. These storms may be slow moving providing time to prepare, or fast moving leaving very little time to prepare. In either case, high-velocity winds are often strong enough to remove roofs from buildings by breaching the building structure. Even if the roof and walls of a building are sufficiently strong to resist the winds produced by a storm, the building aperture covers, such as garage doors, often fail. Many devices have been developed to protect building aperture covers against damage from windstorms. Some of these devices are easier to install or operate than others, but all devices known require some type of manual action in order to provide reinforcement to the aperture cover. Therefore, if the homeowner is away or is not able to install the protective device due to a time constraint, the structure will not be properly protected from a storm.
The largest aperture cover in the typical home is the garage door, some having a horizontal span exceeding 16 feet. High wind loads cause these large aperture covers to deflect across their unsupported spans. Once the aperture cover exceeds a given amount of deflection the cover will buckle or break. When a covering such as the garage door buckles under high wind loads, the garage is instantly pressurized. This often leads to a “domino” failure of the entire building structure. The instant pressurization of the garage causes the garage roof to be blown off the house. Once the garage roof blows off, the remaining roof blows off the house and the walls cave inward.
The proper use of reinforcement during high wind loads can effectively prevent the failure of a wide span garage door. Smaller building aperture covers may be sufficiently reinforced against buckling by installing a secondary fixed-panel over the aperture, for example, sheets of plywood anchored against the aperture periphery. Corrugated panels of aluminum or other rigid materials, removably mounted on permanent tracks, are used in other situations. These reinforcement methods are suitable for relatively small apertures. However, since these types of reinforcement panels do not collapse, they must be removed and stored when not in use. Weight and space requirements quickly become prohibitive factors as the size of the aperture to be covered increases. Panels sized to cover large windows or garage doors may be too heavy and cumbersome to move by a single person. The need for two-person installation severely limits the usefulness of this reinforcement method; a second person may not be available when a storm approaches, possibly preventing proper installation.
Folding, accordion-style panels are used as a way to address some of the shortcomings found in fixed-panel reinforcement methods. Folding panels typically require installation of one or more permanent guide tracks and are not suitable in all instances. For example, since accordion-style reinforcement devices are folded, not removed, during storage, sufficient space is required on either side of the aperture to accommodate the folded panels. Additionally, these types of reinforcing devices are often exposed to weather and require preventive maintenance to ensure that the stored panels will unfold easily and travel along the guide tracks when needed. Furthermore, folding-panel reinforcement devices are typically custom made, requiring specialized equipment and many hours of labor for production and installation. This tends to make folding panel reinforcements expensive.
Other known storm protection devices, permanently attach to the inside of garage doors, or are braces installed before a storm. These devices require manual engagement or installation. Manual engagement or installation is not always possible. Homeowners are often not capable of moving or installing these devices and there is likely to be a shortage of contractors available before a major storm capable of completing the installation. The limited amount of time available before a storm may leave some of the people who own this type of protective device without protection.